Chez Panisse Foundation

{{#badges: ToxicSludge}}The Chez Panisse Foundation was founded by celebrity chef and natural foods advocate Alice Waters. According to its website it "envisions a public school curriculum that includes hands-on experiences in school kitchens, gardens, and lunchrooms, and that provides healthy, freshly prepared meals as part of each school day. ... Over the past ten years, we have worked to establish groundbreaking models in the Berkeley Unified School District: the Edible Schoolyard and the School Lunch Initiative. [1] According to Alice Waters' biographer Thomas McNamee, Chez Panisse "is a standard-bearer for a system of moral values. It is the leader of a style of cooking, of a social movement, and of a comprehensive philosophy of doing good and living well." [2] In March, 2010, Alice Waters and Chez Panisse Foundation declined to oppose growing food in toxic sewage sludge. [3]

The major sewage sludge industry front group, US Composting Council, gave Alice Waters and her Chez Panisse Foundation an 'award' in January, 2011. "The H. Clark Gregory Award to Promote Grassroots Efforts in Composting" was awarded to Alice Waters, Chez Panisse Foundation and their Edible Schoolyard program which promotes children growing food from their own gardens. The award is given each year to an individual who has displayed outstanding service." [4] The USCC also sponsors International Compost Awareness Week to promote sewage sludge "compost," and works closely with its members BioCycle magazine, Synagro, Water Environment Federation and other lobbyists for growing food in sewage sludge.

The misleading labeled "organic compost," which the PUC has given away free to gardeners since 2007, is composed of toxic sewage sludge from San Francisco and eight other counties. Very little toxicity testing has been done, but what little has been done is alarming. Just the sludge from San Francisco alone has tested positive for 1,2-Dibromo-3-Chloropropane (a.k.a. DBCP), Isopropyltoluene (a.k.a. p-cymene or p-isopropyltoluene), Dioxins and Furans. [12]

The Organic Consumers Association conducted a noon hour picket of Chez Panisse April 1, 2010, after Alice Waters refused a request to oppose growing food in sewage sludge. [13] The industry front group ACSH is now making Alice Waters a poster-child for toxic sewage sludge.[14][15]

Chez Panisse Seeks to Grow Its Investment Account

In June, 2010, the Chez Panisse Foundation advertised for a Development Director to work "closely with CPF Board, staff, and Alice Waters to design and implement an effective fundraising campaign each year -- to meet not only the annual operating budget of approximately $1.2 million, but to continue to grow CPF’s investment account to support CPF going forward." [16]

Katrina Heron "is a writer, editor, and independent book-packager. She has been Editor-in-Chief of Wired magazine, and a senior editor at the New Yorker, Vanity Fair, and the New York Times Magazine." Katrin Heron Muckety map